Overview
Avner Vengosh is a Distinguished Professor and Nicholas Chair of Environmental Quality at the Nicholas School of the Environment. He is the chair of the Division of Earth and Climate Sciences. Professor Vengosh and his team have studied the energy-water nexus, conducting pioneer research on the impact of hydraulic fracturing and coal ash disposal on the quantity and quality of water resources in the U.S. and China. He has also investigated the sources and mechanisms of water contamination in numerous countries across the globe, including salinity and radioactivity in the Middle East, uranium in India, fluoride in Eastern Africa, arsenic in Vietnam, and hexavalent chromium in North Carolina and China. As part of these studies, his team has developed novel geochemical and isotopic tracers that are used as fingerprints to delineate the sources of water contamination and evaluate potential risks for human health. Currently, his team is engaged in studying phosphate rocks geochemistry and the impact of fertilizers on soil and water quality, unconventional sources of critical raw materials, and potential environmental effects of lithium mining from hard rocks and brines. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America (GSA) and International Association of Geochemistry (IAGC). In 2019, 2020 and 2021 he was recognized as one of the Web of Science Highly Cited Researchers. He serves as an Editor of GeoHealth and on the editorial board of the journal Environmental Science and Technology. He has published 171 scientific papers in leading international journals. His recent cross-disciplinary book “Water Quality Impacts of the Energy-Water Nexus” (Cambridge University Press, 2020) provides an integrated assessment of the different scientific and policy tools around the energy-water nexus. It focuses on how water use, and wastewater and waste solids produced from fossil fuel energy production affect water quality and quantity. Summarizing cutting edge research, the book describes the scientific methods for detecting contamination sources in the context of policy and regulations.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Publications
The role of boron in controlling the pH of lithium brines.
Journal Article Science advances · May 2025 The global clean energy transition requires the development of alternative energy technologies that rely on critical raw materials including lithium. Closed-basin brines, which generate ~40% of global lithium production, often have a circumneutral pH; howe ... Full text CiteQuality of Wastewater from Lithium-Brine Mining
Journal Article Environmental Science and Technology Letters · February 11, 2025 The sustainability of lithium mining is one of the critical factors for a successful transition to renewable energy. A potential practice to alleviate brine level decline and loss of adjacent fresh groundwater from brine pumping in the salt pans (salars) i ... Full text CiteRole of coal ash morphology and composition in delivery and transport of trace metals in the aquatic environment.
Journal Article Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) · December 2024 Fly ash is predominately the inorganic byproduct of coal combustion for electrical power generation. It is composed of aluminosilicates with Fe, Mg, K, and Ca forming submicron to 100 μm spheres and amorphous particles. During combustion trace elements are ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Collaborative Research: From Global to Local: Geochemistry of Global Phosphate Ores and Implications for Tracing the Environmental Impacts of Fertilizers Utilization
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2023 - 2026Potential Impacts of Lithium Mining on Water Quality in North Carolina
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by North Carolina State University · 2023 - 2025Potential Impacts of Lithium Mining on Water Quality in North Carolina
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by NC Water Resources Research Institute · 2023 - 2025View All Grants